Before the year 2000, almost all contracts were only considered binding with a physical signature. This obviously caused delays in operations and left a lot to be desired from a customer experience standpoint since the only holdup was a piece of paper. Today, in the world of the internet and immediate access to things with the click of a button, we have sped up the way we conduct business with the electronic signature. But that still doesn’t come without a headache. How many of you have put in hours perfecting a quote, searched for the right parties to send it to, finally get it in what you think are the right hands, only to be left in the dark about what happens once it’s sent?

Well, with PandaDoc, we have eliminated that feeling altogether. There are really two big issues the application addresses, and those are problems with the time it takes to create and send a document, and the lack of visibility across yours and your prospective client’s organization into the proposal process. I will dive into how this application will allow you to speed up that process on multiple fronts, and also give your company a look into what is happening with your document from creation to execution with signatures.

First, let’s talk about speed…

Here are the top 3 ways that PandaDoc has sped up the closing process in a sales cycle…

Tokens Integrated from CRM ( Oracle Sales Cloud ) – The first way it speeds up the proposal generation process is by automatically pulling information from your CRM into the actual document with tokens, which are field merges that leverage the integration between the two applications to have information such as Company Name, Address, Primary Contact Name, etc. already in your document upon creation. For information that is commonly placed in multiple locations, you can save time with these. (ex. [opportunity.CompanyName] )

Templates / Content Library – Another way PandaDoc decreases the amount of time spent on a proposal is by allowing you to create templates that you can reuse time and time again should you have boilerplate information that is standard with each proposal. Also, a tab called the ‘content library’ is a place you can store certain blocks of information to place into new documents should you need to reuse certain pieces of content, such as product SKUs and/or explanations of each product or service you are including. So instead of re-creating every proposal from scratch, you can save time by being able to reuse and edit prior documents at any time.

Recipients – The Recipients tab will let you decide what key stakeholders of the organization your are dealing with will receive notification through email with the proposal attached. Without having to create another email with an attachment, you can send the document directly through PandaDoc and have it signed electronically to send/receive it sooner than later, thus starting your relationship as fast as the two parties would like. Also inside this tab, there is an option to allow the organization you send your proposal to be able to forward the document should that be a need. So instead of crafting another email to another person within that company, they can forward it to the right person without you pressing another button.

The other major benefit is the increased visibility into each proposal.

Here are 3 ways to increase the visibility into the proposal process…

Anyone with a sign-in or access to the document can view and write comments. This can be a manager or another contributor within your organization if there needs to be adjustments before it is sent out to the prospect. Or if there is any note you want to send the prospect yourself, it will also be visible so a dialogue about the terms and conditions and/or pricing could be hashed out through comments instead of back and forth redlining a document sent through email multiple times.

The Analytics tab is another way to increase visibility. Once the proposal is sent out to your prospective client, all actions taken against this document such as viewing, signing, and forwarding is tracked. It even lets you see what pages were viewed and for how long each person was on any page. This will give you insight into what is most important to your customer while also arming you with what is most important to talk about in subsequent conversations.

You have the ability to generate a “key” that allows others to view upon your authorization, so you can control who can and cannot see any document sent. If you are working with someone in an organization that doesn’t have signing authority, or even a channel partner that doesn’t have any direct action to take on your proposal, giving them a copy of the document is as easy as pressing a button. The key will also let you know any and everything they do with that document, thus giving you ultimate visibility into what happens with your proposal.

How much time and headache can these areas of improvement in the proposal generation save your team? It is not every day that you find something that fits your budget but also increases efficiency in something as tedious as generating a quote and getting it in the right hands at the the right time. Everyone could use more time and better information about what happens to their proposal once sent out.

For more information or to inquire about how easy it is to set up PandaDoc, please contact info@sfcg.com.